Bitcoin

Created by the team behind BitcoinPlay taken from here. Important Bitcoin Facts that Will Get You Up to Speed The year 2017 marked many milestones for Bitcoin. It moved from the relatively unknown corners of the internet into the mass markets. It dominated news cycles while growing in value to the point where the informational demand for Bitcoin-related information and statistics now ranks among the most searched topics on Google. According to recent studies, 80% of Americans have already heard about Bitcoin. However, more than half of those individuals don’t even know if Bitcoin is legal in America or not. This clearly represents a big disparity between the popularity of Bitcoin and what the average person actually knows about it. Today, Bitcoin has a market cap of well over a quarter-billion USD and is simply too big to ignore. Bitcoin is now worth nearly twenty times more than it was around January 2017, and the appeal of learning, understanding and investing in Bitcoin is growing exponentially. Many of the world’s top Bitcoin exchanges have even gone as far as suspending new registrations. Bitcoin Misinformation is Prevalent in the Marketplace Bitcoin is a rocket ship that is reshaping the very way we thought about money and investing. Unfortunately, the demand for Bitcoin information has also created a large volume of misinformation that makes it difficult to ascertain the truths from the fiction. This, coupled with a slew of neo-pundits that are all weighing in on a topic that is garnering more and more traffic, has led to many being unsure of where to actually get the Bitcoin facts that matter and are actually credible. A good example of this can be found in the ongoing debate on the possibility of Bitcoin being in a speculative bubble. A quick Google search of “Bitcoin bubble” will produce a plethora of opinions that are, in many cases, from people who truly don’t understand Bitcoin. The problem with this widespread misinformation is that Bitcoin could potentially be the greatest transfer of wealth since the oil rush in the late 19th century. For many of us, the opportunity to build wealth is immense, and without access to credible information, few of us understand Bitcoin well enough to take advantage of this opportunity. For those that are looking for credible information that has been curated and fact-checked to help the global understanding of the Bitcoin revolution, a great place to start are these 62 insightful facts about Bitcoin. URL: https://bitcoinplay.net/58-insane-facts-about-bitcoin/ Κοινοποιήστε:Μοιραστείτε τοΠατήστε για κοινοποίηση στο Facebook(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο Twitter(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο LinkedIn(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο Google+(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για αποστολή μέσω email(Ανοίγει σε νέο...

by Olga Kharif olgakharif Bitcoin mining is looking a bit more attractive again. When the virtual currency’s popularity was surging just a few years ago, almost anyone could set up a computer in their basement to mine bitcoins, a process needed to record transactions and ensure the propagation of the digital money, which exists as software. Miners who put their machines to work solving complex computational problems (and paying for the hardware and a higher electric bill) were rewarded with new bitcoins for their efforts. Some became paper millionaires as bitcoin’s price jumped to a peak of $1,137 in 2013 from $13 in less than two years. Then, bitcoin’s price plummeted to a low of $183 last year, leaving only major miners with significant resources in the game. Many found it more profitable to join mining pools, or groups of miners that share computing power to harvest new bitcoins faster and more efficiently. Now, there are signs that broader mining efforts are making a comeback, thanks to bitcoin’s price doubling since September. While that isn’t the only factor that determines whether mining is profitable, it’s an important one. “When the price goes up, there’s more confidence in mining, and [mining equipment makers] go and design the next-generation chips,” said Bobby Lee, chief executive officer of BTCC, a bitcoin exchange based in Shanghai. “For people who already bought equipment, their ROI will increase.” BTCC also operates the world’s second-largest bitcoin-mining pool. Genesis Mining, which has more than 130,000 people buying computing power on its mining hardware to participate the mining process, is seeing higher returns. An investment of $419 yielded a return of about $2.42 a day in November, up from $1.14 in September. At higher bitcoin prices, a speculator would be able to recoup his or her money in about six months, instead of more than a year. “In a price-rising scenario, you can see demand that’s tripling,” says CEO Marco Streng. “And sometimes even higher.” It’s a risky endeavor. Bitcoin prices are notoriously volatile. Also, this year bitcoin’s software is scheduled to reduce by a half the number of coins that get rewarded for mining activities (part of a built-in supply regulating systems). At the same time, more powerful, and therefore expensive, equipment will be needed to keep up with the processing power required to mine bitcoins. For now though, the mining party is going strong. BTCC has seen the amount of computing power hooked onto its pool double in the past six months. “Everyone in our pool is making money, because people who aren’t making money would not have their machines turned on,” BTCC’s Lee said. Taken from here! Κοινοποιήστε:Μοιραστείτε τοΠατήστε για κοινοποίηση στο Facebook(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο Twitter(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο LinkedIn(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο Google+(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για αποστολή μέσω email(Ανοίγει σε νέο...

Ex-federal agent gets 6 years for stealing Silk Road bitcoins Shaun Bridges, the second federal agent taken to court for stealing Bitcoins while investigating Silk Road, has been sentenced to 71 months or almost six years in prison. US District Judge Richard Seeborg told the court that he was compelled to hand a high-end sentence for one count of money laundering and one count of obstructing justice, as he saw the case as “an extremely serious crime consisting of the betrayal of public trust from a public official” motivated by greed. Bridges, who was part of the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force, ransacked drug dealers’ accounts, locking them out and stealing around 20,000 bitcoins in all. That was worth around $350,000 at the time, but as of this writing, that number of bitcoins is already equivalent to almost $8 million. According to Ars Technica, Bridges obtained access to various Silk Road accounts when the feds struck a deal with Curtis Green, a customer service rep for the website, back in 2013. Green took the witness stand during his trial to reveal that the former Secret Service personnel asked him to explain how to change account passwords three times when he was briefing them about the website. Bridges then used Green’s account to plunder wallets and transfer bitcoins into his own — an act Green called calculated, as the agent knew that Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht would easily find out who made the transactions. Green said Ulbricht and his senior adviser Variety Jones, who was arrested in Thailand a few days ago, wanted him dead after that, and he received numerous death threats as a result. Stealing wasn’t Bridges’ only offense, though: he also caused other investigations to fold up. Since the bitcoins he stole couldn’t stay in that initial wallet forever, he transferred them to all to Mt. Gox. Yes, that’s the controversial Japan-based bitcoin exchange service that closed up after allegedly losing a lot of money to a security breach and an inside job. Ars says Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Kathryn Haun told the court that when Bridges found out about the feds’ Mt. Gox investigation, he quickly withdrew all his money out to make sure they don’t find his details there. He then “turned around to the AUSA and did a civil seizure warrant to [Mt. Gox founder Mark] Karpeles.” Bridges pled guilty in October, the same month Carl Mark Force IV, another Baltimore Silk Road investigator who stole bitcoins from the government and the users they were investigating, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison. In addition to serving time behind bars, the judge has also ordered Bridges to forfeit $651,000 taken from here! Κοινοποιήστε:Μοιραστείτε τοΠατήστε για κοινοποίηση στο Facebook(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο Twitter(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο LinkedIn(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο Google+(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για αποστολή μέσω email(Ανοίγει σε νέο...

The U.S. Marshals Service said on Thursday four winning bidders emerged from last week’s auction of bitcoins seized during the prosecution of the creator of the online black marketplace Silk Road. The Marshals Service did not identify the winners in what marked the final auction stemming from the case of Ross Ulbricht, who authorities say ran Silk Road, where the digital currency could be used to buy illegal drugs and other goods. The breakdown by amount of bitcoins won per bidder was 4,000, 6,000, 10,000 and about 24,341, said Lynzey Donahue, a Marshals Service spokeswoman. Those bitcoins were worth $14.3 million, according to the Bitstamp exchange. On Monday, New York-based bitcoin exchange itBit said it won five blocks of the digital currency equivalent to about 10,000 bitcoins at last week’s auction, conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service. The bid by itBit was organized on behalf of a syndicate of the exchange’s and over-the-counter trading clients, said Bobby Cho, director of trading at itBit, in an email to Reuters. (Reporting by Nate Raymond and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by W Simon and Bill Rigby) Κοινοποιήστε:Μοιραστείτε τοΠατήστε για κοινοποίηση στο Facebook(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο Twitter(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο LinkedIn(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για να το μοιραστείτε στο Google+(Ανοίγει σε νέο παράθυρο)Κλικ για αποστολή μέσω email(Ανοίγει σε νέο...